Semi-formal Regulator Testing

[nerobro]

Well i'll be, you're right ;-) intersting.. 16bps on an AIR valve.

[laysomepaint]

im curious to see how well a number of regs would do in this test. mostly, the AKA sidewinder. they claim to have the highest flowing reg in paintball, and everyone i know that has used one agrees. well, prove right/wrong. hmm...also heard that the stab is equal to the sidewinder. never used the sidewinder...have a stab though.

[squidboy69]

did anyone ever hear back about the AKA reg?? my cocker's operating pressure is going rapidly south, as such I'm having a hard time keeping air to it, based on volume. I'm in around the 150-200 PSI range@ 250 fps. I'm looking to get an inline, as my dual regualted PMS system isn't capable of feeding much below 200psi without shutting off.
advice?

[laysomepaint]

id suggest the the stabilizer, sidewinder, or gladiator. everyone I know that has a cocker uses these with excellent results in low pressure set-ups

[ciaran.mooney]

Re: Semi-formal Regulator Testing

Originally posted by nerobro
even after 10 secconds hadn't fully recovered to it's set pressure.

Maybe Angels dont need to reach their set pressure to work properly without dropoff? Maybe to work at their best they only need about 70%? So when they are rapid firing even if they only fill to 70% they still work without any drop off?

[manike]

Originally posted by nerobro
Well i'll be, you're right ;-) intersting.. 16bps on an AIR valve.

It can go faster! There are rumours of an Automag shooting 20bps... No idea if there was drop off though. The firing range was too short. Allegedly.

manike

[manike]

Re: Re: Semi-formal Regulator Testing

Originally posted by ciaran.mooney
Maybe Angels dont need to reach their set pressure to work properly without dropoff? Maybe to work at their best they only need about 70%? So when they are rapid firing even if they only fill to 70% they still work without any drop off?

It would be very interesting to see Tom's gun dyno results on this. He may prove what I am about to say completely wrong But it is possible that this kind of thing happens. With a well set up gun using the 'knock open' style valve then you can find that the valve design compensates for the pressure behind it.

For instance if the pressure is fully recharged and high then the valve is shut quickly by the extra pressure and so your dwell is short. If however the pressure behind the valve is low it stays open for longer and you get a longer dwell. Now if your gun is set up correctly the short dwell high pressure can give you the same velocity at long dwell low pressure. This definitely works on some guns and I guess it will also on the angel under rapid fire (although probably nowhere near as well as it should if it recharged faster).

Where I used to work they had a tippman SL68 (that's one for the older players ) and this gun was pretty damn consistent. It was very used and abused. One day I thought I'd take it apart and see if it needed any work (yeah yeah if it aint broke don't fix it blah) and I found that the valve spring had rusted so the only thing shutting off the valve was the co2 pressure behind it! Funny thing was the gun was consistent on a full tank and a low tank (they weren't all).

My Autococker is tuned to a point that if you turn the pressure up the velocity goes down, and if you turn the pressure down the velocity goes down... If you think of this as a velocity Vs pressure graph you will see there are two sides on it (bell graph). One which gets the same velocity with high pressure and one which gets the same velocity with low pressure. Even though the valve is being opened by the same spring under the same force. I don't know if all angels operate this but it is possible that they do.

manike

[cledford]

Re. the Palmer...

Glad to hear that the Palmer tested well - I paid about $25 dollars more then any other reg available for mine, and I'm always glad to see I made a good choice.

Here is a quote from the Palmer web-site, I'm wonder if anyone cares to address it. Basically (Craig Palmer I believe) is saying that their reg is TWICE as consistent as a uni-reg. The AIR/RT/Air America stuff are all variations of the unireg, right?

Anyhow, it made for interesting reading. I'm looking forward to standardized reg testing - I want to see where MacDev and the MaxFlo fit in. I feel that reg consistency is the heart of accuracy.


Here is the Palmer quote:

What is the general difference between the unireg and the Stabilizer (i.e. effectiveness)?

The major benefit of the Stabilizer over the Unireg is that the Stabilizer will maintain consistency just about twice as well as the Unireg can. This is due to the design and dimensioning of the unit. Through any regulator there is a certain amount of inverse pressure variation in the output pressure that results from the variation in supply pressure. (as the supply pressure to the regulator goes up or down, the output pressure will go up or down, exactly opposite, and in a ratio that is proportional to the valve and diaphragm (or plunger) dimensions. (i.e. as the supply pressure goes down, the regulated pressure will go up slightly and vice-versa) In the case of a Unireg, that ratio of change is approx. 35:1; meaning that for every 35 psi of supply pressure change, the output pressure will vary approx. 1 psi. The Stabilizer will only vary about 1/2 as much. In other words, the Stabilizer is rated as a 70:1 regulator, in that it takes a 70 psi change in supply pressure to yield a 1 psi change in output pressure. Also, the Stabilizer weighs about half that of the Unireg yet will handle the same pressures. It should also be noted that the ONLY way to avoid the variables in pressure is to use two-stage regulation. This in effect, is 2 regulators in series, where the second regulator will reverse the inversion from the first one. It is actually the inherent use of 2-stage reg. that provides the consistency that is so highly proclaimed about the use of High Pressure Air or N2. (one regulator at the tank and the second stage at the gun. The AMag has the 2nd stage built into the gun, not the case with a "cocker.) I hope this is not too confusing, it is a difficult concept to explain.